Any one else psyched for this games release? Ironically I've been through some hills and valleys with my excitement, when I first heard about it I was crazy excited, then I saw early builds of the arcade version and it just looked like Street Fighter 2: 3d edition and my excitement pretty much dissolved to nothing, then they started revealing all the new characters in the console release and my interest has once again been raised.

Overall I'm still kind of disappointed by how few new characters there are (The console version has 6 total counting the 4 "new challengers", the boss, and Gouken) but various Super SF2 and SF:Alpha characters they've added to the console version do atleast give it a more diverse and impressive roster then the arcade version.

I think the decision to go to a slower pre-turbo pre-hyper speed of play was a good one, it should make the game alot more mental and alot less about who has the quickest reflexes. I also like that they went back to the ST system (only 1 super per character) and took out SF3s parrys. I just like the simplicity of one super, and parry's made fire balls pretty much a joke (and while they shouldn't be the be all end all of moves, they should at least be fierce some) as well as made it VERY hard to get new people into the game (especially non-fighting game friends) as it created a huge gap between casual and intermediate players that frightened beginners away.

I won't know what I think of the Revenge meter/Ultra meter or focused attacks until I get to try them out for myself but they sounded at least interesting. The inclusion of EX moves is nice if only because it gives the characters with the absurdly hard to perform super moves a way to make use of their super bar when played by non-pros.

My biggest complain so far is that they seem to have ignored all the ingenious changes that were in SSF2T:HD Remix that made the game MUCH more accessible to the average player. With the exception of the really popular characters like the shotokons pretty much everyone has atleast one really hard to perform move (you'd think after over 10 years they'd notice that the characters with moves performable by non-super humans are the ones seeing 90% of the play time and do something to make everyone playable). HD Remix DID something about this, re-doing pretty much every tricky move into something much more reasonable, yet SF4 completely ignores these changes... *weeps at the prospect of having to do Cammy's old spinning back fist and especially her old hooligan throw motion that is so hard even US Street Fighter professional player David Sirlin admits he can't do with any consistency*

The biggest controversy with the game right now surrounds the fact that they will be selling alternate outfits for the characters at 4 bucks per 5 or so characters worth of outfits, and these outfits are not only already on the disc, but were actually in the arcade version with out having to pay any special extra fee. I think this is bad form on Capcom's part, but unlike most I'm not getting up in arms about it, the outfits don't effect anything but ascetics, it would be different if they actually effected stats like in Soul Calibur 4.

So what are your all thoughts, anyone else excited about this game?

The bunnies of Lavato have special abilities, like 'Action Skill: Make Carrot Disappear.'

That actually was a small controversy when some of the initial screen shots of the game were released but when a company charges for something that's already on the game disc people seem to forget about everything else and go crazy. Its definitely interesting though how several of the characters look extremely cartoony with exaggerated body parts (and shockingly nearly every body part EXCEPT for breasts, the body part that's so commonly exaggerated in nearly every other fighting game these days is the only one I don't haven't seen any shots of looking exaggerated) while others look relatively realistic.

Still if you ask me the controversy is why they claim they made this game with the focus of making it more accessible to beginner/casual players yet then proceeded to go back to the horrendously difficult control motions for several of the characters (the most notable in my mind being Cammy since her hooligan throws motion is the old tiger knee motion that was consider so bad they changed it in nearly ever game sagat appeared in after Super Turbo and for the record Sagat DOES retained his easier motion for Tiger Knee in SF4 its only Cammy and I think maybe Fei Long who remained cursed with it).

I've actually heard rumors that the reason they don't use HD Remix's superior moves is because even though it is officially licensed, it was created by an American team (Backbone studios), and the head Capcom members in Japan refuse to acknowledge anything US made as being superior to their own. Its kind of similar to how you hear about Japanese players who boy cot the 360 and only support the ps3, not based on the games they have, but purely because Microsoft is an American company and Sony a Japanese. I can't say its unprecedented, since I know tons of people out here who only buy American cars even if they cost more and work inferior just because they want to support their country, but still there are times when people need to put aside their country pride when it can result in a superior product for both countries.

The bunnies of Lavato have special abilities, like 'Action Skill: Make Carrot Disappear.'

I feel the series hit a climax with Alpha 2. The freedom of options while playing, instead of forcing choices before each round, made every game more interesting with the variety of playstyles that could be incorporated with some of the characters. Chun li and rose were far more interesting to play in that version compared to others. I did not like the street fighter 3 super combo limitations at all. It forced very niche styles of play for some characters, instead of just having niche characters, like the grapplers. The good thing introduced following alpha 2 was the block gauge, which promoted more offensive style of playing and made counter style playing more challenging.

I think a bigger problem the series faces is the grappler style of play overriding other playstyles through pre-loaded controler motions while in mid air. In some variations of the games, that included air guarding, this allowed the normally slower grappler to overcome their natural slower speed and basically dominate the opponent since the throw would go through every other move and be near immune to attacks while airborne. This exludes air throws or select super combo moves, which would be useless in any other situation... The "justiification" for this was that the moves were "more difficult" to pull off, but given the player skill involved, i have seen it done consistantly and repeatedly throughout match after match making the point moot and it basically destroyed game balance. I mean hell, i saw the characters initiate the throws before the character animation actually touched the ground... This would be a primary aspect of the game that i hope gets adjusted in the future and i feel is one of the reasons as to why there was a general migration from 2d to 3d fighting games, which allowed the character to basically axis change to avoid the grappler and grapple move entirely in addition to projectiles...

I don't know much about the guarding counter to projectiles really. I stopped playing in the early street fighter 3 days, as i lost a lot of interest in the game with the direction it was taking. However, with higer calibur players, the projectiles were merely combo finishes instead of primary offense or stalling manuvers making the counter to them moot (basically making them more of a ranged punch than anything special).

As far as the chun li thigh thing, it could just be a joke aimed at the live actress playing in the new street fighter movie giving her "american" thighs... Personally, i don't care that much about it, but i would have figured that the industry would have moved beyond dis-proportionate characters by now, excluding chibi characters of course with their oversized heads... The release of the game in tandem with the movie is just a promotional gimmick that could easily backfire, since the movie looks just about as bad as the original van damn/raul julia flick which is distressing.

I've been playing lots of SFT2 on Xbox arcade and am kinda sorta excited for SF4. Never been a huge fan of street fight, it seems clunky to me. I dunno. Anyways, Cammy is the best hands down. Cannon Drill!

Little leaf, green leafGather light to you.Little root, deep rootBind the earth to you.Mind the trunk that holds you high!Mind the branches long and proud!So strong stands the forest.